The Prison Officers Association (POA) knows only too well the vindictive nature of governments that restrict trade unions’ basic human rights. 

As a trade union, we have been restricted from the right to strike, or indeed any form of industrial action, since 1994, some 20 years ago. 

I wish I could say it was only Conservative governments that have restricted prison officers from the fundamental right to take strike action. 

Although the curbs were put in place by the Tories under the Criminal Justice Section 127 of the Public Order Act, which effectively criminalised any such action or to be induced to take such action, a Labour government also strengthened that legislation in 2008. 

This was in response to the POA’s national strike action in August 2007 which paralysed our prisons for a day after our supposed independent pay review body was interfered with by government. 

We have suffered during the last 20 years by not being able to take legitimate industrial action under a trades dispute, suffering many injunctions for just having the audacity to stand up for our members’ rights.

At the TUC this year the POA will be speaking on a motion with other unions regarding the potential of a Tory government bringing in legislation that will mean unions will have to reach 40 per cent thresholds to obtain the right to take any form of action. 

Actually I don’t think they will stop there if they get an outright majority. I think the Tories, who have a hatred of trade unions, will attempt to restrict unions that they believe represent essential services. 

The POA knows the dangers. We have lived with the injustice for 20 years. 

The trade union movement must campaign and prepare for the worst-case scenario. I do not want any other union to suffer in the way my union has over the years. 

The International Labour Organisation states that a government may choose to restrict workers’ ability to take action if they are deemed to be an essential service but must give adequate compensatory mechanisms for resolving disputes and pay which have the confidence of both parties. 

Well, I can reveal that the POA has never had confidence in any compensatory mechanism that has been before us — and there lies the problem. 

If the Tories get their way on introducing more anti-trade union legislation, it will make it impossible to reach the threshold of 40 per cent, making industrial action either more difficult to achieve or virtually impossible. 

Let’s face it, not many members of Parliament get that sort of threshold when being voted into their constituencies, nor could the Tories even form a government in 2010. 

Legislative framework in the House of Commons and the House of Lords is voted in with far less of a threshold than the Tories are proposing for trade union ballots. 

My union has no rights, but trade union members in Britain have fewer rights now to take industrial action than they did at the turn of the 20th century. 

With the Tories pledging new restrictions on basic rights, the collective workplace freedoms already lost must be recognised. 

I always believed the line in the sand should have been drawn a long time ago. But perhaps now must be the time before it is too late.

Just how much more is the trade union movement as a whole going to accept? We have had no fewer than six Acts of Parliament between 1980 and 1993 which have increasingly restricted unions’ ability to undertake lawful industrial action, including the outlawing of secondary action and curbs on picketing, which have given employers the opportunity to use injunctions to stop strikes in many more circumstances. 

No wonder employers have found it far easier to achieve injunctions in the courts. 

In fact, between July 2009 and May 2010 there were no fewer than five successful injunctions by employers to prevent trade union strikes. 

The hoops that unions have to jump through are ridiculous, with notice periods that were introduced in 1993 where unions have to give notice of intent to ballot and even after a successful ballot notice of seven days is required before beginning the action. 

Union rights have been eradicated over the years. It is 20 years since the rights of POA members were taken. 

I personally don’t think the trade union movement as a whole did enough at that time and the union was left isolated. So much for the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all.” But then the trade union movement stood and watched the miners’ dispute in 1984 when it should have united as one. 

Perhaps if more unity in the movement was shown when individual unions were under attack, we would collectively be a lot stronger and the anti-trade union legislation would be a thing of the past. 

We need to help ourselves because politicians will not reverse any of the restrictive legislation. 

They fear workers’ movements. The sole reason my union has been restricted is because they fear the potential industrial might, even with the current restrictions that the rest of the trade union movement currently find themselves under.

I am content to argue at the TUC that the time to campaign against the Tory onslaught is now and not later if they win the next general election. Then it will be too late. 

We must also let a potential Labour government know that we are not going to give up without a fight over anti-worker legislation and we want them to repeal it so we have a level playing field with employers. 

For far too long trade unions have been seen as the problem in Britain, yet we should be seen as the solution.

The whole trade union movement needs to become more organised and effective and the line in the sand needs to be drawn in Liverpool. Enough is enough of more restrictions on trade union members and a clear statement should also be made that the POA has the full support of the movement and the TUC won’t rest until the legislative restrictions are removed from prison officers.

Steve Gillan is general secretary of the Prison Officers Association